Asian Experience - Taft

After being seated in a booth against the wall, I noticed that the restaurant was preparing to close for the afternoon shift to get ready for dinner. I ordered stir-fried vegetables with chicken, but the waitress seemed quite eager to get me out, so I skipped ordering a pizza. The stir-fried veggies were delicious and perfectly seasoned, and after a few bites, I decided to take the rest of my meal home. I found to-go boxes at the counter and helped myself before leaving. I made sure to give the waitress a generous tip as I exited.

I can't believe how a cook would refuse to let you order what you want because she messed it up! I ordered dish L1 with shrimp and calamari, specifically asking for no peppers as it stated in the description. Instead, all I got was tough, rubbery seafood. The broccoli was so overcooked that I couldn't even spear it with a fork, and the shrimp were way overcooked as well—they were rubbery! The waitress, simply doing her job, came back to inform me that I couldn't order a different dish, the Massaman curry with shrimp, because the cook would prepare the shrimp the same way! If you go to a restaurant and order a steak medium, and they bring it out too rare, is the cook really going to say you can't have it cooked differently? Save yourself the hassle and go to Bakersfield, where they will serve you as you request and actually know how to cook shrimp properly. Here, it seems like the cook only knows how to serve rubbery seafood!

If the shrimp is rubbery and the broccoli is so tough that you can't even pierce it with a fork, and when you ask the waitress for a different dish, she tells you that you can't choose a different type of meat or even get another shrimp dish prepared differently, then it's best to go elsewhere.

Very expensive $17-$20 for each of our meals). Massaman curry: average. Pad See Ew: Decent. Garlic Delight Chicken: decent. Garlic chicken pizza: almost inedible. Very doughy. Overall we were just shocked that our family of 4 spent over $100 on average food. Granted, we are used to authentic LA Thai food. This was not that. If the portions had been bigger, we likely would have walked away happy. But the portions were not large. I’d say average, which for those prices surprises me. Rice and noodles are cheap- they could have offered more of both. Really feeling the inflation today! Speed of service: good. Wait staff great.

The food was fantastic. Took the express jet to flavor town. I did not anticipated the creative dishes and awesome flavors created by Asian Experience. If ever in Taft, California it's a must that you stop by and try out the coconut chicken soup. One of my favorite restaurants in Cali.